The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-12

able reputation can be deserved; but there
are two WAYS which are so much in the
point | wish to make, that | will speak 4
Them, ard leave you to enumerate Others
for yourself.
In the first place, then, you can be very
un American indeed, and become more and
more so, and when you have become just as
un-American as you can be, You can keep so
by simply being and remaining ignorant
about your country.
1t is a good rule about good things that if
you wish to feel very little interest in them
you must know very little about them: and
If you wish to have no interest at all,
you must know nothing. The rule holds
particularly good about the particularly
good thing we call America. The girl who
wants to be un-American must know moth
ing about her country; she can then feel no
interest in it, and If she has no interest she
will have no pride, no love, no
Americanism. This is the first, best way to
be un-American. In the second place, you
| can be very un-American indeed by being
very something else-very French, very
Italian, very German, or, alas! Every Eng
lish!" There is no better way in the world
to ALLEVIATE yourself from an old friend or
benefactor than to be disloyal to that per-
son. The very best way in the world for a
shallow girl to lose admiration for one
friend is TO compare that friend with an
other who is more admired by every one
else; who is ''the fashion, And, even if
she is not shallow, it is a dangerous expert
ment, if she wishes to retain her own self
respect and sense of loyalty, for any girl to
expose dear friend to too much compari-
son with others, and to hear too much criti-
cism from others. tits good thing not to
permit ones self to do this at all. If your
old friend, your brother, your sister, your
mother, your father, is not so much admired
for surface qualities by people i'll general
as is some new friend, that is not your af-
fair: he or she is, after all, yours, and yours
tokeep, yours, first and best, always and for
ever
A very good way indeed to be thought to
be un-Amerlcan, and to really become so, is
to compare your country with other coun-
tries, with constant willingness to believe
the criticism of other people which makes
America come out of the comparison second
best. And then to initiate as much as pos
sible, the manner and customs of European
countries; to catch up all the foreign expires
sons and 'airs" you can; in short, to be just
as French or just as English as you possibly
can be. You viii lose your sense of loyalty
toward your own land in this way, and then
you will find it very easy to dislike America,
just as we poor sinners find it very easy al
ways to dislike everybody and everything
which is a reproach to us.
To be truly American girl is to be truly
country loving girl. UndU Is, 10 De
truly patriotic; and that's to love and honor
and be ready to serve her country at all
times and in all places. Plenty of times and
plenty of places will be found if one is look
ing for them.
No American girl can possibly help loving
and honoring her gEand country if she
knows anything about it. The long, thrill
ing story of its making, from first to last,
from its beginning way back in the hearts
of men, to its present growth and greatness,
will sink deeper and deeper into the heads
and hearts of all who study it, and mea
more and more, as time goes on. Learn all
you can girls, of every country; you can
never study history too much. But first and
last and in the middle, learn all you can of
your own country. You can never in a
whole lifetime learn all there is to learn.
The story can never grow stale, if rightly
studied; and never grows tiresome.
And stand up for America wherever you
are. Don't initiate any foreign styles or
manners. If in the depths of your good,
true, cOuntry-loving hearts you, ARE com
PEELED to admit that your country has a
fault, as every great nation has, why, go to
work to first conceal and then cure that
fault; and let it be your glory that, as
American girls, it is your mission to make
everything American SO good and so beau
tiful that not long hence it shall be more
fashionable to be livery American than very
anything else; even Every English.
ROSE ELIZABETH CLEVELAND.